Mythos
by Sakon76
Summary: How does Earth have legends about Thor and Loki, when they had never been here before?


**Mythos**  
by K. Stonham  
first released 24th July 2012

It is Darcy who brings up the logicistical inconsistency.

"So, like, if you've never been to Midgard before," she says around a turkey-with-Swiss-and-avocado-on-wheat, "how do we have all these legends about you going back a thousand years? You were wearing Pampers back then, right?"

Conversation - and lunch - pauses as everyone takes in that mental image.

Thor, luckily, doesn't need help parsing the jargon. "Aye, indeed; I was but a mere babe, suckling at my mother's breast," he says while Steve asks Pepper in an undertone what Pampers are. "It was my father and his shieldbrothers who journeyed then to Midgard. Their exploits are still recounted in our great halls."

"She's got a point," Tony says, which is obviously a sore point for him. Darcy may be Pepper's new favorite minion, but Tony has issues with her. Bruce suspects it's because she doesn't properly respect his science. Sometimes he suspects that's part of the reason Pepper likes her poached-from-Jane lackey. Pepper never properly respects Tony's science either. "How do we have all these stories? If Loki only went evil last year..."

Thor smiles. "You assume that my brother and I were the first to come here in so long. There are nine realms, my friend; even if Asgard and Jotunheim left Midgard alone, others had no such boundaries."

"So, what, word of mouth advertising?" Tony looks intrigued. Bruce can kind of understand why, see the cogs turning in Tony's head. Viral mythology!

"Indeed."

"Still," Doctor Selvig interjects, "how would the stories - about individuals who were then infants - include future exploits?"

Thor wiggles the fingers of one hand, the other holding his pita. "Those of other realms have varying gifts. Once in an aeon, a Seer may be born, and tell the true tales of what is yet to come."

"Prescient alien visitors," Bruce mutters. He knows this is the stuff of nutcases and conspiracy theorists. And yet it sounds so _reasonable_ coming from Thor.

Selvig looks briefly at Jane, then back at Thor. His mouth thins. "The stories have Lady Sif as your wife."

Thor jolts upright, staring, mouth agape. "Sif?" he asks, and his shocked disbelief tells it all. "Nay!" he protests. "She is as a sister to me, fine shieldmaid that she is." His glance at Jane is wounded: _did you believe this of me?_

Jane, who had gone a little stiff herself, relaxes and presses up against her god, reassuring.

Pepper arches an eyebrow. "Can a seer's visions be faulty?"

Thor frowns, looking into the distance. "When it comes to those of Asgard, no," he says. "For all our power and might, we are simple creatures, with rigid codes of honor that bind us."

"So why the diff, then?" asks Darcy.

Thor breathes out. "You of Midgard are a young race, still learning and growing. The tides of inevitability shift on your world as they do not on ours. You cast ripples; even a Seer may not see truly, once Earth becomes involved."

"So no Ragnarok?" Bruce asks.

Thor laughs. "Have no fear of that, my friend! Ragnarok shall indeed come, and the final battle will be glorious. For does not even your science say that some day the universe will end, another being born of its ashes?"

"Wild," murmurs Darcy, taking another bite.

Steve looks at Selvig, then back at Thor. "I might be misremembering, but what I learned in school said that Loki would marry someone named Sigyn..."

Thor blinks. "The lady Sigyn? She is but a child." He stops, seems to think it over. He breaks out in a broad grin. "And when she matures, aye, I think she will lead my brother on a most merry chase. I shall enjoy witnessing their courtship!" His laughter is boistrous and contagious. Even Bruce feels himself start to smile.

Pepper's StarkPad alarm goes off. She sighs and picks up the device. "Lunchtime's over," she reports. "Come on, Darcy, back to taking over the world."

"I walk in your footsteps." Picking up her own StarkPad, its back graffitied with the slogan _Darcy Lewis Can't Lose_, Darcy scarf a last hot pepper and follows in Pepper's wake.

"I suspect," Thor says thoughtfully, "that I should read your world's tales of Asgard and the other realms. A wise man should know what tales are being told of him."

Bruce thinks on what he remembers of Norse mythology. He thinks of what tales he knows are told of him. He thinks about how grateful he is to have Tony as a friend, to have the other Avengers surrounding him, shields between him and those words.

"Thor," Bruce says, as gently as he can, "sometimes you're better off not knowing what others say about you. Isn't it best to go on as you would, regardless? Without knowing all the things that might or might not happen?"

Thor is looking at him, and for a moment Bruce feels as big and awkward as The Other Guy, but then Thor nods. "You have a fine point, my friend. To be true to oneself, one should not be swayed by the words of others. I will take much thought on this philosophy of yours."

And like that, lunch dissolves into lighter conversation: speculation of where Clint and Natasha may be on their assignment, scientific jargon about the needed calibration of various instruments, and, always, jokes and laughter and teasing.

* * *

A/N: Don't mind me, I'm just spackling over one of the huge great gaping plotholes of Thor...


End file.
